Not Peace but Victory: Hanoi and the Exploitation of Western Protest Activists

In popular discourse the Vietnam War protest movement is portrayed as a morally laudable rebellion of the young against the old and a heroic attempt to bring a cruel and senseless war to a halt. The Vietnam War protesters, the argument goes, were pacifists with a conscience, who turned against a belligerent and racist imperialism that belonged in the dustbin of history.1 Certainly related to this canonization, academic literature on the protests is both laudatory and abundant.2 Although interest in the protests has changed over time, most recently focusing on issues of gender and race, the view that the protest movement was selflessly trying to end the war still dominates.3Although most scholarship on the protest movements has focused on the United States, things look different from the other side.4 Because the Vietnamese Communists sought through their “diplomatic front” to present the war as a global affair, they needed friends in what their main ally, the People's Republic of China (PRC), at the time referred to as “intermediate countries”—those that could credibly agitate against U.S. intervention and change the global discourse in terms transcending the Cold War paradigm. Sweden was such a country, neutral and amenable to both East-West and North-South exchanges on its territory. Under pressure from the domestic Vietnam movement, Sweden soon turned into the West's most vocal critic of the war and was the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations with the Communist-ruled Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV).5 Sweden also hosted the so-called International War Crimes Tribunal (the Russell Tribunal) in 1967, a huge propaganda triumph for Hanoi. It was followed by a series of ten Stockholm International Conferences for Vietnam, during which the DRV arranged important contacts for antiwar activists from all over the world while successfully spreading pro-Hanoi propaganda.6The highly popular writer Sara Lidman arguably was instrumental in bringing forward this broad Swedish political movement against the war.7 Already a beloved Swedish writer with a flair for public speaking, she visited the People's Republic of China (PRC) and then North Vietnam in the autumn of 1965. The trip lasted a full month and included meetings with the highest leaders such as Ho Chi Minh. Afterward, she began ardently promoting the cause of the National Front for the Liberation of the South (NLF), which grouped together the Communist insurgents in the South.8 This article shows that her visit to Beijing and Hanoi was conducted with financial and logistical assistance from the PRC—through its embassy in Stockholm—to foster a protest movement against U.S. involvement in Vietnam, clandestinely led by Maoists.From 1965 until the late 1970s, Lidman continued to cooperate almost full time with the Vietnamese Communists. Having been the first Swede to visit wartime Hanoi, she became a sought-after authority to reflect the DRV's perspective on the war. She wrote countless articles, countless public for the North Vietnamese and to a series of so-called Vietnam all a she in the war in of protest movements against the Vietnam War has in the academic This article in the of of the and most important movements the United to at her for Hanoi. the is its of the of and her with Vietnamese Communist and to the in was to of important from the a of a Western was by Beijing and Hanoi to in their against the United This other important war been by Hanoi to of Communist domestic in Western during the Cold articles, and as as from and Vietnamese this article her to the DRV and her in public discourse on the Vietnam It of Lidman and her to North Vietnamese It also the of and Western that were of Lidman of other Western activists who the Vietnam Vietnamese of and was as as in a in Hanoi who visited the DRV in of the she was the of the first In the DRV to Sweden to all the who in the in protest against U.S. and its war of in Vietnam and who all and to their In her political most and the highly over to her Sara of to the huge leaders to the propaganda Lidman the in scholarship on the Vietnam War has led to a of its protest movement, the war of the war. that they as the war became for of the most vocal protest the of for a they that the United all its and its attempt to This and belligerent was by the been of the of turned to to The Vietnam War to that the was by and for war against both and domestic Because of the with the that at the end of the the for friends the Although the also for in the its of with the from war with Beijing was to as the main for the global against and the of from the the world into the and the view and This was of a to was of a political a In the this as China began to the its ally, for a Western and In the political discourse of the were as and of the as the United of for their this China to a the sought to over activists from to the United during the Vietnam this in has been until from the in of China with Swedish and to a antiwar movement against the United in as the United was to its involvement in the in Vietnam, the embassy of Communist and the of its to and The was to a Swedish protest movement against the U.S. in in and meetings was portrayed in the as of the of Communist from a trip to China with a from the a young at the embassy in both in the of a Swedish political and a in War movement with attempt to Swedish leaders continued into in the embassy to Beijing that important propaganda meetings been conducted with The embassy what could to the and of the Swedish War Although the Swedish antiwar movement, they its and were that as as and movement were in It was the embassy focused on The they the of the United and this to the in Beijing that Swedish activists to The embassy needed to in the propaganda that needed to change the of the protest The end for at this time, was in Vietnam of the United important the embassy in Stockholm to a Swedish War movement was to a and young Swedish 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she wrote a to the embassy her in of all the they she been to the Lidman continued to with the in Hanoi her in to and and they her to to In the the Republic of Vietnam needed the of her to visit Hanoi that she a to Lidman and could all in of what she to to the U.S. to for the war. for the the and also to the with in a Hanoi, together with the Communist In the to Communist into this over the the began Vietnamese in the to on Vietnamese is to with this to against by the main of and that Vietnam to the this could also as against the then her for been a of Lidman for she the and and she the Swedish what was and she Lidman to to Vietnam to for that she could to in with on the the end of followed by a that Lidman as as that to China Vietnam in at the embassy in Stockholm on Lidman for to to and propaganda that the from the of the Swedish The that China and North Vietnam in the to the DRV's war against the United as as the and the in Lidman she needed to the as still to world Hanoi in and other into with It at a for this the Communist movement is what Lidman to her to a on The by Hanoi, and the of the against the in been She was to that and of could in and were all that different from her in the In the of in the Western of Vietnamese of were their to Vietnam in Lidman all her to to her she she a all her other friends in Vietnam, and the Vietnamese her with all the for such a still she with the of her she to Vietnam, she to a that is she to her to on the and she from the Vietnamese embassy in She her the that the and country in her that in is that the she continued in the on a and by the and what is of to with this In she the for the Vietnam she with for and her in a with with and the was by the North were for the Western war the Communist leaders in Hanoi were the who the by a propaganda full of Vietnam and the war. were by in the The North Vietnamese the to the DRV and with Because the was to the discourse of the as attempt to Communist as a war of imperialism and U.S. Vietnamese Communists from assistance from neutral in the for their Sweden was such a country, and together with North Vietnam, to the Swedish antiwar movement into a for this was they arranged for Lidman to visit China and North Vietnam in which she became most important in the